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Here W9RAN, Bob Nickels, stitches it together like this:
The majority of Army Infantry communications used frequencies in the 2-12 MHz range. The S.I.A.M. group monitored U.S. Army short range voice transmissions from the front lines that came in the clear. They were "eavesdropping" on their own troops. Why? Using the S.I.A.M Co. to encode and relay sensitive battlefield information was a speedy and secure way to get front line intelligence up to command headquarters. The front line troops only had portable short range radios that couldn't reach Command HQ. On the other hand, the "heavy iron" that S.I.A.M. Co. employed could span greater distances. This sensitive information was always encrypted using the M-209 converter that was designed in Europe years earlier, but manufactured for the U.S. Army by the Smith and Corona Co. of Syracuse, NY. The “converter,” as the machine was called, could both encipher and decipher text, one letter at a time. The mundane name may have been used by the Army to conceal the true identity and function of this device, which was in fact a spy’s tool. The text to be encoded was entered, one letter at a time, into the machine, and the resultant enciphered letters were printed out on paper tape. That jumble of letters containing a secret message were then transmitted by radio telegraph, by Abe’s code clerks. The code keys were changed frequently. The Signal Corps had evidence that the Germans needed at least 24 hours to decipher these encoded messages. A 32-minute film produced by the army explains in detail, how to operate the encoder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxEkMiAS0Po 
Ebay listed an M-209B encryption machine in 2024, which had been owned by a man who collected typewriters. The device sold for $1000. (Three photos courtesy Steven Mello.)
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(Above)
My father's handwritten captions on the back of the print, identifies the other two men in the photo made in Germany, April25, 1945. Gene Lynch, (rank unknown), holding the M-209 Converter Ed Orloff, (rank unknown) Lt. Abe Sacks |